My knowledge of Marilyn Monroe prior to My Week with Marilyn was pitifully limited to an Elton John song used in a McDonalds’ commercial. She was the candle in the wind: used up and spat out by Hollywood and eternally misunderstood. While my knowledge of Marilyn hasn’t increased much, apart from her marriage to Arthur Miller, I do have a new found interest in her career.
Michelle Williams plays the lead as Marilyn Monroe with Eddie Redmayne as her infatuated rich kid Colin Clark. The movie is based on the real Colin Clark’s memoirs of his experience as he worked with Monroe and Sir Laurence Olivier (superbly played by Kenneth Branagh) on the set of the film The Sleeping Prince. Colin becomes Marilyn’s emotional support on the set as the tumultuous filming occurs with him eventually succumbing to her charms and ending up broken hearted.
The challenge for film makers was always to make Williams the star and as mesmerising as the real Monroe was on film. As far as this goes, they succeeded handsomely with Williams dominating every scene she is in and capturing the spirit of Monroe in one of the best biopic portrayals in recent times. Her charisma is well balanced with her fragility and always with a dash of sexual allure. Branagh is also excellent as the aging star Sir Lawrence Olivier. His crotchety demeanour is slowly revealed to be sheer terror as he sees his career slowly fading away and this provides a stark contrast to the short life we know Monroe experienced.
The one disappointment was the geriatric cast and performance of Redmayne. To the latter, I know he was meant to be naive and young but he was just plain annoying. His puppy dog eyes and inane promises capture the public’s infatuation with Marilyn but ultimately make him a pain to watch. Moreover, the who’s who of British actors who fill the bit parts was equally dismal. Dame Judy Dench’s small role is thankfully limited while the rest of the cast aren’t really worth mentioning. On reflection, this may be a result of Williams’ star shining so bright but having lesser lights in these roles would have made this less obvious.
As biopic film features go this was one of the best recent attempts. While our narrator is an annoying, rich, twat, Williams shines as Monroe and delivers a mesmerising and ravishing performance that was worthy of an Oscar.
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